Part 2: If Not Viability, Then What?

More Perfect

WNYC Studios

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4.8 • 14.7K Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2023

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Now that the “viability line” in pregnancy — as defined by Roe v. Wade — is no longer federal law, lawmakers and lawyers are coming up with new frameworks for abortion access at a dizzying rate. In this second part of our series, More Perfect asks: what if abortion law wasn’t shaped by men at the Supreme Court, but instead by people who know what it’s like to be pregnant, to have abortions, and to lose pregnancies? We hear from women on the front lines of the next legal battle over abortion in America.

Voices in the episode include:

• Mary J. Browning — pro bono lawyer for The Justice Foundation

• Dr. Shelley Sella — OBGYN (retired)

• Greer Donley — University of Pittsburgh School of Law professor

• Jill Wieber Lens — University of Arkansas School of Law professor

Learn more:

• 1973: Roe v. Wade

• 2022: Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

• Listen to Part 1: The Viability Line

Supreme Court archival audio comes from Oyez®, a free law project by Justia and the Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law School.

Support for More Perfect is provided in part by The Smart Family Fund.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @moreperfectpodcast, and Twitter @moreperfect.

Transcript

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0:00.0	A heads up, this episode has stories of abortion and pregnancy loss.
0:05.4	I'm Joy Lungoria, this is more perfect.
0:12.2	I don't have any particular pride in the original Roe v. Wade decision.
0:18.7	I mean, I never really thought about the viability of viability.
0:26.0	Last week we heard from a judge and a clerk.
0:29.2	Two of the men who 50 years ago tried to answer the question of abortion in America.
0:35.4	I just thought you can't abolish her right, but you can limit it.
0:39.8	And they settled on a compromise.
0:42.2	One that was flawed from the start.
0:44.5	The viability line.
0:47.2	Now the Supreme Court has thrown out that line.
0:50.2	And lawmakers across the country are scrambling to write new lines, new rules for
0:55.8	when it's legal to get an abortion or if it's legal at all.
1:04.6	Today on more perfect, chapter two of our two part series.
1:09.9	What if abortion law wasn't shaped by men at the Supreme Court?
1:15.4	What if it was written by people who know what it's like to be pregnant?
1:20.1	I don't think people see me as a person that would have had an abortion.
1:24.1	I present anybody else trying to define what happened to me.
1:28.6	I think I always go back to we have to look at what drives someone to have an abortion.
1:34.9	And why is that person at 26, 27, 28 weeks desperate to have an abortion?
1:41.2	What are the circumstances?
1:42.8	That's the key.
	...

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